Dear Classmates:
This is a request for
your input to Volume II, 50th
Reunion Book,
50 Years in Review.
Volume II of the history
of our Band of Brothers will be a potpourri of memories loosely woven through
time with our memories of defining events. The basic idea is to have a
history written around defining moments -- our (your) memories of those moments,
with accompanying pictures of writer and/or other classmates surrounding that
event. The goal is to have as many classmates as possible contribute to
our history, so that we have an anthology of individual narratives and
reflections with editorial seques, rather than a single overarching narrative
phrased by but a handful of us.
To date, we have gathered
numerous poems and life stories. That is a great start. Quite a bit
of the input received to date will be included in Volume II. Ambitiously,
we are going to attempt to publish all of the input – if not in the printed
Volume II, then electronically on a DVD, to be made available to the Class at
some time after the reunion and after the delivery of Volume II.
Now, while all inputs
including multi-event histories are welcome, we solicit in particular event
write-ups and / or personal vignettes (memories and relevant pictures taken at
the time of the events). A few such defining events / moments have been
developed in draft; one “Defining Moment,
You don’t have to be a
philosopher, poet, or an English Hive to help. What is needed are
vignettes about an event / time /memory.
Something like: “I remember this about; or my wife / classmate(s) and
I were; the event / moment affected me, us, or mine this way; and here’s a
picture of me, us, and / or mine at the time of the event.” As the
reader will realize, when he / she scans the attached
The topical roadmap of
Volume II is attached. We were all born during the Great Depression; we
may not remember any specifics, we do have recollections of our families and the
impact family and events made on our values and characters.
There are four general periods into
which our history is divided:
1)
Pre-West Point
Experiences, starting with the Depression and Tom Fletcher’s (our oldest
Classmate’s) birth in 1932;
2)
West Point Days – our
time and experiences at
3)
Post Graduate Careers in
service to our Country as soldiers and civilians, starting with Officer Basic;
4)
Retirement Years,
enjoying the sunset (or golf, skiing, grandkids, hobbies, and the activities
that blossom in this period of our lives.
Rather than making this
message oppressively long, or otherwise overwhelming the Forum, once a person
indicates his or her interest, Jerry or I will give that person a suggested list
of the defining moments that have already been identified. There might be some
we have not yet thought of, and are open for their inclusion. However, such
correspondence will be by personal e-mail.
Attached is a partial
list of the defining moments / events for your consideration, to prime the
creative-juice pump. Where no lead-person is indicated, I would like to have
someone volunteer to write a general lead-in and a vignette with picture.
It would be ideal if the person writing the general lead/intro into a
defining moment / event would also agree to coordinate getting four or five
other vignettes with pictures from other Classmates.
We look forward to your
stepping forward. Fundamentally, this is not Court’s book, it is not Jerry’s
book – it is our book, and it can be
made so only through multiple contributors and interesting, reflective stories.
Many thanks! -- Court
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